event

Dynamic Gulf: Forces of Change in a Strategic Region

Fri. June 14th, 2013
Washington, DC

Scholars, analysts, and activists from across the Middle East, Europe, and the United States will examine the commonly neglected forces at work in this dynamic and strategically important region.

Share your questions and comments, and join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter @CarnegieEndow, using #DynamicGulf.

This conference was cosponsored by Carnegie and Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED). 

Fri. June 14th, 2013 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM EST

New Trends in Activism: Youth, Women, and Islamists

Despite widespread assumptions that the Gulf is an island of stability in the Arab world, the new Gulf is in fact dynamic and is seeing a sea change in informal politics and methods of activism.

Despite widespread assumptions that the Gulf is an island of stability in the Arab world, the new Gulf is in fact dynamic and is seeing a sea change in informal politics and methods of activism. To discuss the new trends in youth, women, and Islamist activists, Carnegie and POMED invited Kristin Smith Diwan, Assistant Professor of Comparative and Regional Studies at the American University School of International Service; Jane Kinninmont, senior research fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House; and Ahmed al Omran, Saudi blogger and writer for the Riyadh Bureau, to join a panel moderated by Stephen McInerney, Executive Director of POMED.

Jane Kinninmont

European Leadership Network

Kristin Smith Diwan

Ahmed al Omran

Stephen McInerney

Fri. June 14th, 2013 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM EST

Continuity and Change in the Gulf: How Stable and For How Long?

It remains to be seen whether the Gulf States will be able to stave off a Gulf Spring in the face of the politicization of previously dormant groups, growing economic challenges, and increasingly open media.

In the final panel of the day, speakers debated the ability of the Gulf States to stave off a Gulf Spring in the face of the politicization of previously dormant groups, growing economic challenges, and increasingly open media. Panelists also discussed the impact that regional instability and sectarianism—particularly the Syrian crisis—will have on Gulf governments. This session featured Kristian Coates-Ulrichsen, Baker Institute Fellow for Kuwait at Rice University, Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, and Mark Lynch, associate professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University. The panel was moderated by Carnegie’s Frederic Wehrey.

Bernard Haykel

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

Mark Lynch

Frederic Wehrey

Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Fri. June 14th, 2013 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM EST

A New Ruling Bargain? Reform and Gulf Elite Dynamics

The seismic political transitions brought on by the Arab Spring has introduced new difficulties facing the Gulf monarchies’ ruling families, their political systems, and the political culture of a changing Gulf society.

The seismic political transitions brought on by the Arab Spring has introduced new difficulties facing the Gulf monarchies’ ruling families, their political systems, and the political culture of a changing Gulf society. To discuss the effects of these changes Carnegie and POMED invited Andrew Hammond, former Reuters correspondent for Saudi Arabia, Ali Al Shihabi, author and investment banker from Saudi Arabia, and Abdulhadi al-Khalaf, former Bahraini member of parliament and professor of Sociology at Lund University in Sweden to join a panel moderated by Marc Lynch, professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Ali Al Shihabi

Andrew Hammond

Abdulhadi al-Khalaf

Marc Lynch

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Frederic Wehrey

Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Frederic Wehrey is a senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where his research focuses on governance, conflict, and security in Libya, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf.

Kristin Smith Diwan

Kristin Smith Diwan is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Her current projects concern generational change, nationalism, and the evolution of Islamism in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Jane Kinninmont

European Leadership Network

Jane Kinninmont is the director of impact at the European Leadership Network.

Ahmed al Omran

Stephen McInerney

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen is a fellow with the Center for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and an associate fellow at Chatham House.

Bernard Haykel

Bernard Haykel is a scholar of the Arabian Peninsula, focusing on the history, politics, and economics of Saudi Arabia, the other Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), and Yemen. He is a professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University.

Mark Lynch

Andrew Hammond

Ali Al Shihabi

Abdulhadi al-Khalaf

Marc Lynch

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Marc Lynch was a nonresident senior fellow in Carnegie’s Middle East Program where his work focuses on the politics of the Arab world.